Mike Jackson
| placeofbirth = Sheffield | placeofdeath = | image = | caption = General Sir Mike Jackson serving as Deputy to General Wesley Clark | nickname = | allegiance = United Kingdom | serviceyears = 1963 – 2006 | rank = General | branch = British Army | commands = 1st Bn Parachute Regiment 39 Infantry Brigade 3 (UK) Mechanised Division Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Land Command | current position= | battles =The Troubles Kosovo War Iraq War | awards =Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order | laterwork = }} General Sir Michael David "Mike" Jackson GCB, CBE, DSO, DL, (born 21 March 1944) is a British army officer, formerly Chief of the General Staff. He was formerly commander of KFor in Kosovo as well as being an IFORSoldier: The Autobiography commander in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as second in command of a company of the Parachute Regiment in Derry during the events of Bloody Sunday and a company commander with the Parachute Regiment in South Armagh during the Warrenpoint Ambush. Early life Jackson's father was in the army, and his mother from South Yorkshire (then part of the West Riding). As a young boy Jackson was educated at Stamford School in south Lincolnshire.Interview with Sir Mike Jackson Management Today, 3 December 2004 After his secondary education and Sandhurst he went on to the University of Birmingham to read Russian Studies before returning to full time soldiering. Army career Jackson was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps aged nineteen in 1963, specialising in the threat from the Soviet Union. He transferred to the Parachute Regiment in 1970 and was serving as a Company Second-in-Command in Northern Ireland when the regiment was involved in Bloody Sunday, an incident in which soldiers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians on the streets of Co. Londonderry. He spent two years as Chief of Staff of the Berlin Infantry Brigade, then commanding a parachute company (B Company 2 PARA) in Northern Ireland, where he was involved in the aftermath of the Warrenpoint bombs, later rising to become the commanding officer of 1 Para from March 1984 to September 1986. In 1989 he took command of 39 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland, a post he held until 1992.Biography at Cranfield University In 1994 he was appointed General Officer Commanding 3 (UK) Mechanised Division and went on to be Director-General, Development & doctrine in 1996. NATO In 1997 Jackson was appointed Commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. He served in the NATO chain of command as a deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark. In this capacity, he is best known for refusing, in June 1999, to block the runways of the Russian-occupied Pristina Airport, to isolate the Russian troops there."Confrontation over Pristina Airport" BBC News (online), 9 March 2000 Had he complied with General Clark's order, there was a chance the British troops under his command could have come into armed conflict with the Russians; doing this without prior orders from Britain would have led to much controversy. On the other hand, defying Clark would have meant disobeying a direct order from a superior NATO officer (Clark was a four-star general; Jackson a three-star). Jackson ultimately chose the latter course of action, reputedly saying "I won't start World War III for you", though the point became irrelevant when the American government prevailed upon the Hungarians, Romanians, and Bulgarians to prevent the Russians from using their airspace to fly reinforcements in. As a result, he was dubbed "Macho Jacko" by the British tabloid press. Among his own troops and the British press, however, Jackson had a reputation for being severe and prone to anger, earning him the nicknames "Darth Vader" and "Prince of Darkness"."'Darth Vader' put on the spot", BBC News (online), 15 June 1999 Jackson went on to serve as Commander-in-Chief, Land Command from 2000 to 2003. Chief of the General Staff During the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq War, Jackson, as Chief of the General Staff, ordered an inquiry into pictures released by the British tabloid The Daily Mirror that depicted alleged torture of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers. The Daily Mirror's editor Piers Morgan was later fired by the newspaper, after the pictures were shown to be a hoax. On 23 February 2005, soldiers of 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, were found guilty of abuse of Iraqi prisoners arrested for looting at an army camp called Bread Basket, in Basra, during May 2003. After they were sentenced, General Jackson made a statement on television and said that: he was "appalled and disappointed" when he first saw photographs of the Iraqi detainees and that The incidents depicted are in direct contradiction to the core values and standards of the British Army ... Nevertheless, in the light of the evidence from this trial I do apologize on behalf of the army to those Iraqis who were abused and to the people of Iraq as a whole. In March 2006, in the aftermath of British Christian peace campaigner Norman Kember's freeing from kidnappers after four months by a multinational armed force Jackson attracted interest when he, barely twenty four hours after Kember's liberation, attacked the hostage's lack of gratitude for the solidier's efforts in freeing him. Jackson claimed he was "saddened that there doesn’t seem to have been a note of gratitude for the soldiers who risked their lives to save those lives", and in doing so added to a media scrum demanding Kember's apology. Jackson relinquished the post of Chief of Staff in 2006. From the Court Circular: The Prince of Wales, Lieutenant General, afterwards received General Sir Michael Jackson upon relinquishing his appointment as Chief of the General Staff and General Sir Richard Dannatt upon assuming the appointment. An inquest in to the death of Sergeant Steven Roberts, a British Army tank commander who was killed in Iraq, heard a tape that Roberts recorded three days before his death in which he accused General Jackson of telling "a blatant lie" when Jackson said that British troops were ready for war in Iraq."Army chief accused of lying about Britain's readiness for Iraq war", The Independent (online), 17 December 2006 Later career On 6 December 2006 Jackson delivered the annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture in which he criticised the Ministry of Defence's running of the armed forces. He questioned the MoD's understanding of the fundamental ethos of the armed forces, he told his audience: "One's loyalty must be from the bottom. Sadly, I did not find this fundamental proposition shared by the MoD." Jackson accused the MoD of fostering a culture of "commercial so-called 'best practice', with its... targets", hitting out at a "Kafkaesque situation whereby the MoD congratulates itself on achieving an accommodation improvement plan defined by itself on what it calls affordability, but which is far from what is defined by the needs of soldiers and their families". An MoD spokesman responded that "While we do not agree with everything Sir Mike has said, we are always the first to recognise - for example in relation to medical services and accommodation - that although we have delivered real improvements, there is more we can do." "Former Army chief criticises MoD", BBC News (online), 6 December 2006 On 11 December 2006, it was revealed that he would be taking up consultancy positions with PA Consulting Group, Numis Securities and Risk Advisory Group. "Sir Mike joins ranks of consultants", The Guardian (online) 11 December 2006 Around this time he had bags under his eyes surgically removed, ostensibly for health reasons.General Sir Mike Jackson speaks out On 29 May 2007, it was reported that General Jackson had come to the conclusion that innocent people had been shot by his troops on Bloody Sunday and that the "Falls Road Curfew" in Belfast in July 1970 had been a "mistake"."Bloody Sunday victims innocent says Jackson", Irish News (Belfast newspaper), 29 May 2007, p. 1 and 11 On 1 September 2007, The Daily Telegraph reported a "withering attack on the US's post-war administration of Iraq by General Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the army during the invasion." The article said, "Sir Mike has condemned the approach taken by former Donald Rumsfeld as 'intellectually bankrupt' ", adding that the former US defence secretary is "one of those most responsible for the current situation in Iraq", and that "Jackson feels the US approach to combating global terrorism is "inadequate" and too focused on military might rather than nation-building and diplomacy.""Gen Sir Mike Jackson's attack draws US ire", Daily Telegraph (online), 1 September 2007 External links * General Sir Mike Jackson Profile * General Sir Mike Jackson - video highlights References |- Category:1944 births Category:People from Stamford Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:Intelligence Corps officers Category:British Parachute Regiment officers Category:British Army generals Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Category:Living people Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Old Stamfordians Category:Sandhurst graduates Category:Deputy Lieutenants of Wiltshire da:Mike Jackson de:Mike Jackson ru:Джексон, Майкл Дэвид